Who is Alice?

Janis Freegard

Alice Alice (who the fuck is Alice?) knows exactly who she is. She is Alice Spider, a weaver of words, a weaver of life. She spins herself a safe and cosy little home. She spins herself a wild, wild life. Alice Spider has many tattoos and a ring through her beautiful nose.

Who are you little Alice? Who are you now? And she says I am Alice Spider. I am Alice Pain.

Alice has a black cloak studded with real stars that keeps the world out. She has no fear, that Alice-in-the-cloak. Her wicked lipstick smile grins out from behind her black hood; her wicked eyes twinkle. She is hip and groove and totally cool. And she is Alice. As always.

I am Alice the Weaver, Alice the Webster, Alice the Spinner of Lives, of Lines, of Lies. I am Alice. Alice Spider.

And Alice has half a bottle of Chardonnay still undrunk (and we all know Alice likes a little drink now and then) and Alice has half a packet of cigarettes still unsmoked (and we all know Alice likes a smoke now and then) and Alice has a knife in the kitchen still unused (and we all know Alice Likes Blood.)

Alice is Alice is Alice. And she is truly alive.

When there are no more censors, when there are no more limits, only then will there be Alice on the page, as she is spoke. Only the Spider waiting in her web. Alice striking; Alice devouring the stuck, struggling fly. Alice strikes again. No regrets.

Janis Freegard is the author of the poetry collection Kingdom Animalia: the Escapades of Linnaeus (Auckland University Press, 2011) and co-author of AUP New Poets 3 (2008). She was born in South Shields, England, and lived in South Africa and Australia before her family settled in New Zealand when she was twelve. She lives in New Zealand’s windy capital city, Wellington, with an historian, a cat, and various spiders. http://janisfreegard.com